Creative Blog

Rik Wilson, who passed away suddenly on January 22, 2016, was one of the most kind, caring people I have ever met. I am honored to have known him. I wrote the following piece in 2012. Rik liked it and was very touched by it. I believe he liked it because it was about his family, not just about him. A tribute to Rik Wilson: Power Play: The Wilson Hockey Dynasty It was a chance meeting at the lighting store. The assistant…

Ann Pietrangelo Ann Pietrangelo is the author of No More Secs! and Catch That Look. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and her work is published on sites all around the web. Ann and her husband, Jim, are partners in WebCamp One, LLC, a website development and content creation company. When they’re not working or hanging out with their cat, Smokey, Jim and Ann can be found strolling the…

Seaforth Highlander Alastair Frew The 6th of June 2014 marked the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the landings on the Normandy Beaches. Those landings began Operation Overlord — the Battle of Normandy — the mission to free occupied France. On that day 160,000 allied troops crossed the English Channel — the biggest armada the world had ever seen. The sounds of the bombardment could be heard six miles inland. But the landings did…

Crêpes with lemon and powdered sugar In our house, as in households across the UK, the day before Ash Wednesday — Shrove Tuesday — was the day of the pancake feast. Shrove Tuesday is observed in several Christian denominations. The term “shrove” is derived from the word “shrive,” meaning to confess. It is a day of reflection, before the penitential season of Lent. The Tuesday before Lent begins — Mardi…

Feb 12, 2014; Sochi, RUSSIA; Anna Sloan (GBR) in the women’s curling round robin session 4 during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games at Ice Cube Curling Center. Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports Curling is a sport born in Scotland, and played there since medieval times. The first written record of this contest on ice dates from 1541. The game’s popularity and viewership soar every Winter Olympics, particularly during the Games in…

Renée FlemingMiro Vrlik Photography / Shutterstock.com When it was announced earlier this week that Renée Fleming would sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl on Feb 2nd, I was overjoyed. Others were bemused, even critical — after all, no opera singer has opened the football championship before. So why can’t there be a first? I asked. Since I’m penning a collection of humorous essays based on my mother Margery’s…

Someone told me once that dogs are happier if they have a job, if they have work to do. When I heard this I recalled the sheepdog trials that took place in the fields of Crossburn Farm in Troon, fields that were separated from our back garden in Hunter Crescent by the waters of the Pow Burn. Watching a Border collie herd sheep into a pen is observing the well-synchronized partnership between shepherd and dog. Sue and Droopy…

Budweiser Clydesdale The first baseball game I ever saw was in Houston at the Astrodome in 1980. My companion explained the rules to me. In school in Scotland we had played a similar game called rounders where we hit a tennis ball with an ungloved hand. My Texan friend tried to explain that a “ball” was really a bad ball, and went on to try to explain a “strike.” This was a concept hard for me to grasp since the ball is…

The article by Dr. Pauline Chen in the New York Times on trainee physicians work hours prompted my memory of my own call extravaganza. As an intern on the heart surgery service I shared the workload with two other interns, David and Rick (all names have been changed). The service was a busy one, one of the busiest in the city. That Monday morning in 1987, David signed out to us at 6am before leaving for a weeklong vacation. Rick and I…

St. Ninian’s Episcopal Church, Troon, Scotland There are two churches I know celebrating anniversaries in 2012. They are entirely different in location, size and age. St. Ninian’s Episcopal Church in Troon, on the windy west coast of Scotland, celebrates 100 years. Its red sandstone walls framed my christening, confirmation and early years of worship. In my earliest memories of it, I sat in the miniscule wicker children’s chairs when we…